How I learned to stop worrying and love the Obscene Publications Act

Our speaker this month was Ed Marlowe, talking to us about the Obscene Publications Act 1959, a piece of legislation under which some notorious prosecutions took place, such as the Lady Chatterley's Lover and Oz trials. Ed's argument was that, rather than being repressive, the Act actually helped free speech. Previously, publishing something obscene was already illegal, but obscenity had not been legally defined, making it risky to publish anything that MAY be considered obscene by someone. The Act, however, defined as obscene something likely to deprave or corrupt the intended audience. Therefore, if you could show that the intended audience would be left largely unchanged by the experience of perusing the publication then you were on safe ground. In the case of Lady Chatterley's Lover it seems that Penguin Books were so confident of their position that they printed 200,000 copies then sent one to the police and effectively invited the CPS to prosecute. Not only did the jury reach a verdict of "not guilty" but the notoriety of the trial proved such good publicity that Penguin's initial print run sold out immediately. (Later reprints even included a dedication to the jurors in the original trial.) Subsequent trials have considered whether a publication was likely to encourage copycat behaviour or normalise a practice or attitude in the mind of the intended viewer, and have had to contend with computer-generated images and deepfake videos. Many thanks to Ed for a fascinating and thought-provoking discourse, and to the diverse throng in attendance, including a couple of first-time visitors and the first sighting of Louise in donkey's years.
      You can see a video of the whole talk at https://youtu.be/LoqSp64-jd0 and more still photos from the meeting at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sheridanclub/albums/72177720323651255.